Thanksgiving Weekend Bird Hunt?

[Birdbander]

I'm thinking of taking a Thanksgiving weekend bird hunting trip, weather permitting, with my two Llewellins.

I want to limit the drive to 12 hours from Grand Rapids, MI.

My options seem to be southeast SD, eastern NE, Iowa, or southwest MN for pheasant. If there are other places they're not coming to mind. Never hunted any of those places and have only limited experience hunting pheasant.

I'd be hunting only public ground wherever I went and finding a motel.

What say you?

 

[smw110136]

Eastern NE is pretty densely populated and there will be a lot of competition for public that specific weekend. That being said, don’t overlook Waterfowl Production Areas, just make sure you have “nontoxic” shot available to you. Especially if it’s cold, there’s a lot of good WPAs serving as thick thermal cover. I would bet in college we killed more pheasants and quail out of cattails than grass.